Dems force Medicaid expansion onto Senate floor, but it did not go well

AUSTIN — A discussion about restructing the Texas health agency morphed into a heated argument about President Obama’s health care law in the state Senate on Wednesday, as Democrats frustrated at not getting a committee hearing on a Medicaid expansion plan unsuccessfully tried to push it through on the floor.

The surprise argument and vote marked this legislative session’s first public consideration of the health law’s expansion, which has been hotly debated across the United States and here last year, and had been seen by supporters as having a chance under new Gov. Greg Abbott.